1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a TAG phosphor and a White Light Emitting Diode (White LED) using the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a phosphor having excellent emission brightness by inclusion of Si or Fe in the phosphor having a TbAG:Ce composition, and a white LED utilizing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The white LED is a next generation light emitting device potential capable of replacing conventionally used general lighting means. The white LED has advantages such as very low power consumption compared to conventional light sources, high photoluminescence efficiency and high brightness, long-term service life and rapid response time.
Methods of manufacturing white LEDs may be broadly divided into the following 3 types: the first method is to use a combination of high-brightness red, green and blue LEDs, the second method is to coat red, green and blue light-emitting phosphors on a UV LED and finally, and the third method is to coat a blue LED with light-emitting phosphors.
The first method using a combination of red, green and blue LEDs suffers from problems in that three diodes should be used in the form of one chip, thus resulting in an increase in volume.
The second method involving coating red, green and blue light-emitting phosphors on the UV LED is disclosed in WO9839805. This method is the most ideal method of producing three-wavelength white light by transmission of UV light into three primary color phosphors. However, phosphors having good photoluminescence efficiency of UV light have yet to be developed.
The last method of manufacturing the white LED by coating light-emitting phosphors on the blue LED is currently undergoing the most wide and extensive study. This method has advantages in that it is possible to achieve easy production due to the simplified structure of the white LED and it is also possible to obtain high-brightness white light. Such a method is disclosed in detail in WO9805078, filed by Nichia, a Japanese company. This method is also detailed in S. Nakamura, “The Blue Laser Diode”, Springer-Verlag, P. 216-219, 1997. According to this method, white light is produced by the combination of blue and yellow light such that the blue light emitted from the LED is absorbed by yttrium-aluminum garnet (Y2Al5O12:Ce3+; YAG) phosphor which then emits yellow light. However, YAG-based light-emitting phosphors, due to unique properties of their light-emitting wavelengths, exhibit relatively weak photoluminescence intensity in a red light region, thereby making it difficult to obtain superior color rendering characteristics, and are susceptible to color temperature. Therefore, YAG-based light-emitting phosphors are disadvantageously not suitable for use in environmental illumination or as an LCD color backlight source.